On Thursday morning, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple suggesting that multi-touch display may be coming to Apple's next Magic Mouse. The patent application clearly indicates Apple's interest in producing more sophisticated input systems for its line of Macs, a goal that would be served by the arrival of multi-touch display on the Magic Mouse.

Published this morning by our friends at Patently Apple, one illustration displays one potential application of the aforementioned technology. In one drawing, Apple boasts a virtual number keypad overlaying the mouse, an arrangement that would conceivably provide for easier data entry for users. So advanced is the concept - for a mouse at least - that the display would change based on the tasks being performed by the user at any given moment. The touch screen interface, in short, would adapt the command keys displayed in accordance with the command options available.

According to the patent summary:

In an embodiment, an input device, such as a computer mouse, includes an display device to present observable data to a user. In some examples, the observable data may form a portion of an interface to communicate user interactions to a host system. In some desirable configurations, the input devices will include a collimated glass component configured to translate an image from the display device to a surface of the input device, for example, an outer surface.

Patently Apple notes that the folks in Cupertino would likely use a "collimated optical component" in a future version of the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad or other input devices to help incorporate the outlined technology. "Collimated glass" refers to an "optical component that includes a plurality of optical fibers, such as glass fibers or other fiber optic fibers, that are fused together in a generally uniform arrangement."

To learn more about the patent and the multitude of applications made possible by this technology, check out Patently Apple.

On Thursday morning, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple suggesting that multi-touch display may be coming to Apple's next Magic Mouse.

No it does not suggest that a multi-touch display may be coming to Apple's next Magic Mouse.
It suggests that Apple have published a patent application for an idea. Along with the hundreds of patents we've seen that have never seen the light of day.